The dreary weather lately had been getting me so depressed and longing for the summer that had slipped away once again.

I decided enough was enough and I set out to a tanning salon for a quick, artificial injection of warmth into my aching bones. The receptionist led me down the dark hallway with the scent of burning skin and coconut filling my nostrils. She opened the door to my little cubicle, smiled and handed me a towel. I shut the door and turned towards the tanning bed. I stripped of to nothing and crawled in the still warm sarcophagus of light bulbs and acrylic. As the humming of the lights became steady and hot, I drifted of to a warm, sandy beach with my girl-friend, Rhianna.

We were sprawling on the beach, digging our toes into the sand and feeling the sun rays sink deep into our sinew and melt us from the inside out. She looked so hot in that bikini. The ties all looped up in bows holding the small pieces of fabric to her body.

One simple pull on any of them would reveal what she wanted to cover. Every so often, she would roll over on her stomach and tan her back. The sweat would glisten like diamonds in the sun everytime she took a breath. The tiny grains of sand would lose their 'glue' as the sweat from her body evaporated. I reached over and brushed them off her soft, hot skin. I pulled an ice cube from the cooler and trailed it down her spine, expecting a shrill cry in response to the chill...

nothing but a sigh and a grin. "Mmmmmm...

that feels good" she muttered from under the pile of hair. So I continued with the ice, grabbing a new cube whenever the other one would 'expire'.

I drew little pictures on her back, wrote letters and made her guess the word. "Time to flip", she announced a CLEAR invitation and turned herself sunny side up. The sweat had beaded between her breasts and gravity drew them together and slid them down the gentle curve of her feminine shape. I took the opportunity to introduce a new ice cube to the area and watch her skin draw tighter and form goosebumps that disappeared as quickly. I traced the ice down her cleavage and around the lines of her bathing suit, drifting under the seams every so often.

I drew the ice like ribbon candy down her torso and looped around her belly button and traced the band to her bikini bottoms. "Play, she's hot", I thought to myself as I found my hand had a mind of it's own, slipping its fingers under the band of her bottoms and caressed her mound. Admiring her form had made me hungry for it and she played it up with her slight flirtatious archings and squirms. My fingers inched their way towards the split of her lips and persuaded them to part. It seems she was hotter than expected but it certainly wasn't sweating that got her wet this time. I slid down and pulled closer to her as she bent her knee and settled it behind my back. My fingers deliberately working the inner lips apart and swayed upwards toward the source of her enjoyment. My free hand divided her flesh from her bikini bottom and pulled them to the side, out of the way, revealing her fresh pink to the sun. Another ice cube found its way to my hand and slipped over her glistening furrow. I held the cube in my teeth and drew figure 8's over her silky skin and rubbed with my fingers. I would insert the ice into her and drag it back up to her button. Needless to say the ice cube got tossed into the sand and my nimble tongue replaced it. Up and down her warmth it went, lapping her up like a kitten at a saucer of cream. D A R K N E S S As the sudden black out of the lights jolted me from heaven, the cool air from the fan wafted over me like a blast of Arctic air bitterly shaking me from my dreaming. I dug myself out of my coffin and sorely began to dress, my cell phone rang. "Hello?" "Hi! Where are you?", the voice asked.

"I'm at the tanning salon. I just got finished." "Mmmmmm. You smell like coconuts and burning skin?" "I certainly do, Ms. Rhi-Rhi" "When are you getting over here?? I want to see you while you're still hot and sweaty." "Happy to obilge", I replied as I bolted to the door...